New research found that youth who become increasingly addicted to social media, mobile phones or video games were at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and emotional or behavioral issues. The study, published June 18 2025 in JAMA.

Unlike previous studies that focused on total screen time at one point in a child’s life, this study looked at how young people’s patterns of compulsive or “addictive” use changed over time. Features indicating addiction included feeling unable to stop using a device, experiencing distress when not using it or using it to escape from problems. In contrast, simply spending more time on screens at 10 years old wasn’t associated with worse suicide-related and mental health outcomes.

Focusing prevention efforts on those youths who exhibit addictive use patterns may spare a lot of kids who exhibit only nonaddictive use from a ban on cell phone usage. Banning cell phone use for part of the day like during school hours has not been shown in a clinical trial to be effective in reducing the risk of suicidal behavior or improving other aspects of mental health.

This study could signal a paradigm shift in how the impact of screen time on youth mental health is addressed. Testing interventions that work against other types of addiction may be one way to approach this type of social media and mobile phone use.